I was in Assateague, MD a couple of weeks ago and admiring a ford truck with a custom homemade roof rack. Unfortunately I didn't have the forethought to snap a picture since I use a trailer. I'll try to describe it though and perhaps it'll generate an idea.

Under the front bumper are two tow hooks. He used aluminum plate with hardwood spacers to sandwich the tow hooks and had what might be inch and a half or two inch square tube for the rest of the frame. The square tube was bolted to the sandwich over the tow hooks and went forward past the bumper. He had more tubes rising up above the roof connected with angle braces for support. Square tubing met those uprights and went across the truck parallel with the bumper for the foward kayak support. More tube went back to straddle the cab. Uprights from the bed, perhaps in the stake holders of the bed? A cross member there as well for the mid point support. Aft to the rear bed stake holder for the aft support.

He preferred to load from the front since he always had some sort of trailer. He'd lay a piece of old carpet on the hood, put the stern of the kayak on the hood to stage it, then hoist it to the roofrack and slide it back.

Thanks Jeff, I am changing my mind tho' on just a roof rack(16ft of Hobie would overhang somewhat!)& as Harbor Freight have got a full sized rack that extends over the cab & what looks like 6ft over the bed it's looking like an easy option for a guy with no metal cutting tools or welding equipment......especially as they have it on knock down from $299 to $249 & there's coupons for 20% off anything over $100 which will take it down to $201 (near as dammit) I think that could be the way to go!

Why not just buy a used jet ski trailer and convert it for hauling the yak? That's what I did. Bought it for $200, had a welder fabricate a cage on it allowing me to carry a second on top. I haul my PA on bottom and AI on top and tow it with a Scion XD.

I have a regular cab Dodge Dakota with a 6" bed. I use a ladder rack to carry the hull and everything else goes in the bed. It takes me about 2 minutes to load (or unload) the hull onto the ladder rack by myself. I've seen used ladder racks on CL for around $50.

Good luck!

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